Depression and the Will to Live

What’s the Difference?

There are many people discussing depression, but I find very few really understand the subject. Some are treating the symptoms without resolution. Depression is not cured; it’s managed. Please watch the video, like, and subscribe if you enjoy it.

Transcript of ‘What’s the Difference Between Depression and the Will to Live?’

Many people don’t realise that there is a difference between depression, and the will to live. They are not one and the same, and they can occur independently.

Hey, my name is Jo Roderick.

I don’t ‘suffer’ from depression, because I choose not to. The word suffer implies a helplessness, and we should never confuse our emotions with fact. In some respects, I have found that pop psychology does more harm than good. I never completed my degree, but I have spent over 35 years reading, learning, and dealing with my own issues.

When someone loses the will to live, many people misdiagnose them with depression. The reality is that you do not have to be depressed to have no wish to live. Similarly, a depressed person may have nothing left but his or her will to live.

So why is it important that we make this distinction?

Well, for one; it’s not helpful to lump them together. Two, it’s often incorrect to assume one is the same as the other. Three, if someone is demonstrating the symptoms of both, then that individual really needs help; urgently. If we truly want to help others, we must first strive to understand.

First, let’s get this out of the way: yes, sometimes the two conditions occur together, but not as often as you might imagine. A terminally ill person might lose the will to fight the inevitable. This doesn’t mean that the patient is depressed. In fact, it could mean the opposite.

Wanting peace and a conclusion to an enduring cancer is not necessarily depression. Why should this person fight something that he or she no longer wants to? For the benefit of others? Isn’t that just incredibly selfish of those surrounding the patient in the final hours?

When someone is depressed, he or she doesn’t automatically want to die. Some wish they were dead simply out of a desperate desire for a solution. Failing to see any way forward, death appears to be an attractive choice.

A depressed individual is often looking for a way out of misery; seeking a path to a more fulfilling life. This demonstrates a yearning for life. That person is depressed because life is not as he or she desires. It can be seen as a quest to discover a reason for existence.

Lastly, don’t instinctively insist that someone is depressed because he or she has lost the will to live. If someone is depressed, help the person to find new meaning in life. Show people a better way, and don’t merely offer annoying and often misinformed psychology.

Don’t label people; help them to find a better path, and that seldom involves prolonged use of harmful pharmaceuticals. Be happy; it’s a viable alternative.

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